Monday, June 23, 2008

Busstop's Go Skate Day Adventure, Part 3: Ed Austin Park

We finished our free pizza at Huffman park and headed on down to Arlington, on our way to the new park on Monument road. About 5 minutes before we got to the park, however, mother nature decided to give us the proverbial finger, letting loose a whole bunch of unwanted rain. It really sucked, and I thought this had meant the end of skateboarding for the day. We pulled into the parking lot, and saw tons of familiar faces. Everyone was just sort of sitting around, waiting for the mild rain to finally let up.

Jayson Colon, Blunt-tastic

We got out and took a stroll around the wet park, and the Kona crew was already setting up for the next contest. After about 30 minutes or so, the rain did let up, and people had started skating again. Puddles and wetspots were everywhere, but as you may know, 50 people running their wheels through a puddle will contribute to the drying process. Also, it will kill your bearings. About 30 minutes or so after the skating began, the contest was underway, and people were pushing through eachother left and right to get to the brick quarterpipe for their chance to win a 20 dollar bill with a banger.

This guy was skatin' real good too. Too bad I only took a picture of him dropping in.

At this point, all hell had broken loose on the brick quarterpipe. See, the park isn't all that big, and with all of the attention on this one obstacle, quite a few people collided, and almost everyone got cut off at one point or another. Hell, I even got cut off when taking photos. Whithin no time at all, the supply of 20 dollar bills was exhausted, and the contest was done. Some standouts from the contest that I remember in my head include Jayson Colon doing a backside 180 noseblunt to backside 180 in (to revert?), and Kevin Graver doing a long ass tailslide and making a little kid jump. Later on, I saw some guy with a Hook-Ups board do a sick looking noseblunt on the bench in the corner coming off of the bump. I remember him politely asking a guy to move because he was in the way, and skating off, and dude bowed up and got all pissed. Steer clear of mean looking guys in ankle braces.

Kevin Graver, Frontside Tailslide

Unfortunately, I didn't get too many photos of this place due to the rain, and the fact that I was using a borrowed camera from Rachel Best. Maybe next time I can shoot on an iPhone, I hear those things take some pretty awesome photos. Besides, SLRs are way too heavy.